Zimbra Collaboration Reviews

We are using the solution for inhouse emails.

The web interface is powerful and easy to use.

I have been using the solution for a couple of years.

The solution is very stable.

From what I have heard the solution is scalable. I have not had an experience with scaling it but I am aware of some very large companies that use it.

The support was lacking in my experience. However, recently the support I received was good. Perhaps they have improved. 

With the networking edition of the solution you receive 
the full support options.

If you choose the network edition, it is a little pricier. They have the open-source edition too which is only community supported.

My advice is to try and make sure that the target environment is suited for the web interface because that is where most of its features are found.

I rate Zimbra Collaboration a nine out of ten.

We are mostly using Zimbra Collaboration for email purposes. It is also a collaborative tool. We also use it for sharing some documents and for meetings. 

Zimbra Collaboration is light to manage. It works on the Linux operating system, which is far better to manage than Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Exchange works only on the Windows server. We prefer working on the Linux server for security reasons and ease of management.

Zimbra Collaboration also has some integrated tools for security. It some modules to fight malware. These modules are not very powerful but are still doing a great job. Microsoft Exchange doesn't have a basic module. You have to purchase a security solution and add it to the solution. 

The cost of Zimbra Collaboration is one more reason for liking it. It is also very simple to migrate from Zimbra Collaboration to another email solution.

Zimbra must improve its solution to make it easy so that the users don't have to use webmail to connect to their accounts and log in to webmail every time. This is something that is lacking in Zimbra Collaboration. They should provide a better way to easily connect email applications on the desktop to the Zimbra server.

They should also try to have more functionality for storage management, like Microsoft Exchange. Currently, the management of the email data must be done manually in Zimbra Collaboration, which we are finding very difficult. They should provide a way to save emails so that you can have more space on the server and storage. Because of the lack of this functionality, we are planning to migrate to Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft Exchange provides a better way to manage storage than Zimbra Collaboration. You cannot have a mail solution without storage management because emails will always increase. 

Zimbra Collaboration also needs tools for management. More back-office tools are required to manage the whole mailbox and space. You don't only manage emails but also the documents attached to the emails. Therefore, you require tools to select and decide what do you want to save or how do you want to free up space in your infrastructure.

I have been using Zimbra Collaboration for almost six years.

Zimbra doesn't have good technical support. They are not always available for help, so we have to troubleshoot as much possible by ourselves. It is not easy to find help when we have any incidents.

We have a local partner who is an expert in Zimbra. They really help us by trying their best and doing what they can do. Zimbra support is not always available, so we work only with local support.

Because Zimbra doesn't provide good support, it was difficult for our administration team to handle this solution in the beginning. They had to learn it on their own. The initial setup, however, wasn't really difficult. It was simple.

The teams in charge installed it in a short time with the help of a partner.

Zimbra Collaboration is less expensive than Microsoft Exchange. Zimbra works for small companies because it is not expensive. 

Zimbra Collaboration has more security tools than Microsoft Exchange. If you are choosing between Zimbra Collaboration and Microsoft Exchange, you have to take into account the cost of security tools with Microsoft Exchange. When you purchase Microsoft Exchange, you will also have to purchase tools for security, which adds to the cost. 

The migration from Zimbra Collaboration to another email solution is very simple and easy. Migration from Microsoft Exchange to another email solution is very difficult. Microsoft doesn't allow migration that easily. In fact, you have to pay for tools to do that. You have to buy some expensive tools to migrate.

I would recommend this solution, but it depends on the size of the company and the cost. The number of emails that you use impacts the cost of the solution. 

For a small company, Zimbra Collaboration is good because it is simple, inexpensive, and not very difficult to deploy. For a big company, Microsoft Exchange is good because you have to manage the data, storage, and user emails, and you need a tool that can easily do it for you. Microsoft Exchange provides tools to manage the space and the server. You can create your own policy for emails. For example, you can save emails that are two years old somewhere else. Zimbra Collaboration currently does not have such functionality, and it is something very inconvenient because the emails keep on increasing, and the storage is not unlimited. Therefore, you have to find a way to manage the storage to save all emails and have free space for the new ones. This functionality is really powerful in Microsoft Exchange. That's why for a big company with 1,000 or more users, it's good to have Microsoft Exchange. It, however, also depends on your budget.

I would rate Zimbra Collaboration a seven out of ten. In spite of the lower cost of Zimbra Collaboration as compared to Microsoft Exchange, our management is planning to migrate to Microsoft Exchange because of the issue with storage management.

On-premises

I work mainly with webmail. On the web, we have more than 10,000 accounts on our server

It is the best open source collaboration suite that I know, because it provides high availability and more performance than the other solutions.

We can control all the data in my IT infrastructure.

• Shared folders
• Mobile synchronization
• Admin tools
• Anti-spam tools
• Webmail is simple and powerful.

• Online documents edition
• File sharing permissions with Nextcloud integration
• More features for the open source edition
• Native HA for more virtualization platforms, like Proxmox

More than five years.

I like that I can easily manage all accounts from the management console. This allows real time control of each account. With the CLI, I can also control and manage all server functions or any mailbox, for free.

Premium features, such as auto discovery and archiving, mobile management and HSM, make life much easier. Once implemented, they don't break when you perform OS updates.

When my clients moved from POP3 to IMAP and ActiveSync, they were able to port the complete mailbox. Additionally, Zimbra allows them to centrally manage and store all their emails.

The following areas could be improved:

• Backup
• Autodiscover
• Antispam
• Mobile

I think being able to purchase individual packages would be better than having all the features included in one big package.

I’ve been using Zimbra for more than 4 years.

We had a couple of issues with stability, but nothing that I couldn't work around or fix myself. Zimbra is a powerful product, but since VMware bought it, changes and bug fixes have been very slow in coming.

The main format for technical support is forum-based with tickets. This is not appropriate for big enterprises.

I have used Microsoft Exchange and PostFix. The main reason for switching to a Zimbra deployment is the cost in time.

The first time I performed a setup it was harder than expected. I only had basic Linux skills and Zimbra installation wasn't as straightforward as it is now.

As I mentioned before regarding free products, we expect the end user to figure out how to make it work. When we pay, then we can complain.

I recommend Zimbra for small and medium-sized businesses. Even larger enterprises could benefit from it. If they have a good system administrator and are willing to learn, they could reduce costs and improve performance, while increasing productivity as well.

Most valuable to us is the fact that it's open source, so it's possible to do a lot of customization. Zimbrais easy to manage.

The calendar is a quite useful organizational tool. We also created a lot of accounts for special needs, since we can have as many as we want.

There are some bugs we found that could be fixed. Also, there was a chat tool which was really useful, but was discontinued.

We’ve used Zimbra for 4 years.

We did not encounter any issues with stability.

Regarding scalability, from a user point-of-view, gmail is more convenient with all the other tools, such as Google Docs, Google Drive, etc.

We did not use any other solutions.

To complete the initial setup, you need to adjust the spam filter, setup DKIM, etc. Also, it’s Linux-based, so you need to be familiar with that environment.

The free version is good enough for a small to medium size company.

We evaluated Gmail before going with Zimbra.

If you don’t have a technical person to manage the project, you may want to use a different solution.

Email in Zimbra:

The email application allows users to activate the Zimlets "request read receipt". For me, it's a brand new and useful support for email services, which I have not yet experienced elsewhere.

Besides, the interface is very convenient for busy people while scanning the incoming messages/emails and at the same time opening them (3 specific columns/areas of the main "Mail" tab).

Despite sticking with Gmail for over a decade in terms of business, Zimbra have impressed me with some other aspects as well... If the time comes, I would prefer Zimbra to my current solution.

Zimbra mail reminds me of Hotmail, which I did employ in the past. And comparing it to other email free services like Yahoo, Gmail, etc., Zimbra is still on the way to getting in touch with a wider audience, such as: employers, employees, educators, officers, etc., because it has been a symbol of the open-source community and such a powerful resource for students and educators to explore further, as well as to contribute. 

Calendar, tasks in Zimbra:

Different than other applications I have been using for these functions, namely: calendar, tasks, document, etc. Zimbra simply saves time, as these are attached to the main interface by a tab instead of a link to a different page. So, it's recommended for businessmen, especially.

Server deployment and the GUI for emails should be better.

I have used it for a few months.

From the server side: the installation/deployment should be more user-friendly.

The Zimbra Collaboration Server has many pros that are useful in a business. It has a centralized web based interface for managing the server console. A user can easily use it as a web based & app base on their desktop, laptop, i-phone and smart phone. An inside user console user can send mail, chat, video call, and voice call with other people. You are able to create a centralized address book on a server so that anyone can import and export contacts on their account. Sync facilities make it easier for all your device data updates. Additionally, you can set your G-mail, yahoo, and Hotmail accounts to import their addresses as well. Anti-spam, antivirus, and directory services can integrate with the server. Like LDAP, and Active Directory… you can design polices with the help of a class of service (CoS) for end user features like quota and storage. The search over internet facility is also included with the latest version of Zimbra.

There can be difficulties resolving problems on the server side when problems arise. Before installation, you have to resolve all dependencies, otherwise it is very difficult to setup the server.

VMware Zimbra is an enterprise-class E-mail, calendar, and collaboration solution, built for the both public and private clouds. With a redesigned browser-based interface, Zimbra offers the most innovative messaging experience available today, connecting end users to the information and activity in their personal clouds.

Zimbra Collaboration can be used as an email server.

Zimbra Collaboration has integrated a lot of their party tools and they have good documentation available.

The solution could improve by making it easier to use.

I have been using Zimbra Collaboration for approximately six years.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable. However, all the mailbox details are stored in MySQL or MongoDB. If it is an enterprise-level configuration, then we need to plan for the high availability. This is another challenge in Zimbra. If those things were fixed, then it will be really a good solution.

Zimbra Collaboration has online support communities that are very good at providing detailed information.

I have used Microsoft Exchange.

The installation is not difficult. However, initially, management will be difficult but once you have used it for a while you will not find any challenges.

I rate  Zimbra Collaborationseven out of ten.